Dr Paul Ayris obtained B.Sc Hons and M.Res degrees in Environmental Science at the University of Lancaster, UK. He completed a PhD in the study of SO2 adsorption by glass surfaces, with special relevance to ash material in volcanic eruption plumes. His PhD was supervised jointly by Dr Pierre Delmelle, then at the Environment Department at the University of York, and by Dr Adam Lee and Dr Karen Wilson within the Surface Chemistry group at the Chemistry Department. Thereafter, Dr Ayris worked as a postdoctoral researcher with Dr Delmelle at the Université Catholique de Louvain in Belgium. In 2012 until the present day, Dr Ayris has been working as part of the Experimental Volcanology research group in the Department of Mineralogy at Ludwig Maximilians Universitat München, under the supervision of Prof Dr Donald B Dingwell.

DETAILS OF RESEARCH:

Since the completion of his PhD, Dr Ayris has worked to constrain the variables and processes which shape the surface chemistry of volcanic ash. His work has considered the significance of ash surface chemistry in relation to its impacts on terrestrial and marine ecosystems, and the relevance of transient, high temperature gas adsorption processes acting on ash surfaces at the instant of a volcanic eruption in shaping those impacts. In his current work at LMU, Dr Ayris has developed a unique apparatus to simulate the interactions between hot volcanic gas mixtures and the surfaces of both volcanic ash. He is also investigating the effect of magma fragmentation processes on the chemistry and mineralogy of those surfaces. In his most recent paper, Dr Ayris and co-authors conducted a retrospective examination of the soluble constituents of ash surfaces from the famous eruption of Mount St Helens in 1980, and used their findings to offer insights into how similar studies in the future might be best be undertaken.